Social Institutions and its features

Social Institution

 More specifically speaking, institutions are structured process through which people carry out their activities. Institutions do not have the members they have the followers. For example, a religion is not the group of the people, it is the system of the idea, belief, practices, and the relationship. Sociologist often uses the term institution to define normative system that operates in the five basic area of the life:

• In determining the kinship
• In providing the legitimate use of the power.
• In regulating the distribution of the goods and the services.
• In transmitting the knowledge from one generation to the next.
• In regulating our relation to the supernatural.

An institution is the system of the norms to achieve some goals and the activity. Institution can be described as the normative system in the five basic areas of the life these are the family, government, religion economy and the education which are regarded as the primary institutions. An institution is organized systems of the social relationship which represents certain idea and goals which represent certain basic needs of the society.

According to the subberwal

Social Institution is widely regarded as the set procedures related to the important spheres of the social life.

According to the Horton and the hont

"An organized system of the social relationship which embodies certain common values and procedures and meets certain basic needs of the society."

Features of the Social Institutions

1. The institution of the family plays the most important and central role in all societies.
2. It provides support for the better chances of the social survival.
3. The basic cultural and the moral values of society is embodied in its institutions.
4. Social institution plays the vital role in the development of the personality of the members of the society.
5. They are the social patterns directing human behavior in performance of the basic activities.

Importance of the institutions

Social institutions are such that they help create and develop common values which the people must conform to. This conformity avoids the social conflict among the group of the people living in the particular society and such that the institutionalization process in the modern society with the modern organization system is very much obvious with the division of the labor more than the specific. Bureaucratic system, business organization, and the commercial banks are attributed to the institutional process.

Family

The family is the most important primary group in the society. It is the simplest and the most elementary form of the society. The family as an institution is universal. It is most pervasive and the permanent of all the social institutions. The family in the general is a small group consisting  ordinarily of father, mother, one or more children's and sometimes near or distant relatives. Many sociologists have regarded the family as the cornerstone of the society. In the most primitive societies, the family is the only one social institution. The family is the social group characterized by the common residence, economic cooperation, and the reproduction. It includes the adult of the both sexes, at least two of whom maintain the socially approved sexual relationship, one or the more children, own or the adopted of the cohabiting adults. There are the different types of the family on the basis of the size they are joint family and extended family. On the basis of the authority, types of the family are Matriarchal family and patriarchal family.

Basic features of the Family

The family is the social Institutions found in all types of the society

According to the Brownie 2006,

.It is the basic unit of the society and plays the key role in socializing children into their own society.

The family is the most important part in our life.it is the most important primary and the universal institution of the society.It means the group of the individuals associated with the blood and the marriage.

Kinship

Kinship is the relation by the bond of the blood, marriage, and includes the kindred ones. It represents one of the basic social institutions.Kinship is universal and in the most societies, it plays important roles in the basic social institutions in the socialization of the individuals and the maintenance of the group solidarity. It is very important in the primitive society and extends its influence in all of the activities. Kinship is one of the universal and the basic social institutions which play important roles in the socialization of the people and their group solidarity. In another word, kinship simply means the bond of marriage and the blood.

Kinship usages

Kinship usages or the rules of the kinship are significant in understanding kinship system. They serve the two main purposes:

• They create the groups or the special grouping or the kin. For example, family extended family, clan etc.
• Kinship rules govern the role of the relationship among the kins.

Its basic features are as follows:

1. Kinship is based on the blood ties and the marriage,
2. Kinship is approved by the society, as the marriage and the birth of the children are approved by the society.
3. Kinship is universal.The practices of getting married, becoming parents and grandparents etc are found in all societies.
4. Kinship is permanent. Kinship relations are relatively permanent.
5. There is nearness and distances relationship in kinship system.

References

Bhandari, laxman P. Fundamentals of socilogy. Kathmandu: Buddha, 2015. English.

Schaefer,Richard T. Sociology.International edition.1989,p:413.

Sunmner, W.G. folkways. New York:ginn ,1906